"About 2 a.m. the platoon came to fetch us, and we descended the stairs. Below, in the dining-room, a German soldier played Chopin's 'Funeral March,' and other pieces of music for our benefit. We were ordered out into the street, and made to stand on the pavement, all three of us on the same side, whilst the platoon, with arms ready, stood on the opposite pavement facing us. We waited, thus for fully twenty minutes, after which we were ordered to join the main body of the army. At about 300 yards beyond Montanglaust (the hill overlooking the town to the north) a superior officer of the Death's Head Hussars said to us: 'You are free.'"
The preceding minute account shows how heavy and painful was the task of the civil authorities in the occupied towns.
CHURCH OF SAINT-DENIS
(Leave M. Couesnon's house, and on coming to the Rue le Valentin, turn to the right and continue for a few steps towards the Place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville, in order to have a view of an arm of the Morin bordered by picturesque old houses. Return to the Rue de la Pêcherie.) We arrive at the Place Saint-Denis, where is the old thirteenth and seventeenth century church of that name, transformed into barracks during the war (view opposite).
Turn to the right in front of the church and take the Rue du Palais-de-Justice which leads to the Place Beaurepaire, on which is the statue to the hero of Verdun of 1792. (Major de Beaurepaire killed himself rather than sign the capitulation of the town decided upon by the communal council.)